A month or so ago the official XNA site, the Creators Club, got a new redesign. It re-launched 80% focused on Windows 7 Mobile development and about 20% XNA indie games.
Then, last week, the new Xbox dashboard launched. It appears indie games are no longer considered ‘games’. Microsoft has opted to file the XNA indie games under the ‘Specialty Shop’ category, along with Avatar clothes and Music downloads. As a result, (according to the community’s official sales numbers), purchases are down 50% and trial downloads are down 75%.
Soon, but still at an undefined time, Game Studio 4.0 will be released. The upgrades and changes to the Game Studio are also centered around Windows 7 mobile.
Torque, the only 3d engine that currently supports XNA has announced the next version of their TorqueX engine will be centered around Windows mobile development and that they “haven’t decided yet what their plans are for Game Studio 4.0 support”.
All these things have the XNA community up in arms, which has further effects.
Several of the better, more well-known developers/companies have officially stated they’re moving on from XNA to Steam or iPhone development. The shift in the sale figures simply isn’t worth the cost of development. This coming from the makers of “Beat Hazard” and other top 20 selling XNA games. *A funny side note…they’ve specifically said they WON’T be doing Windows7 mobile development.
Arkedo, makers of some of the most polished professional games in XNA “JUMP!”, “SWAP”, and “PIXEL” haven’t released a game for XNA in nearly a year. I think it’s pretty safe to say they’re done.
So, take out a lot of the best developers and best games on the platform…well…if you thought there were a lot of massage games, clocks and fireplaces in the past….just wait.
What effect does this have on “Deep Blue”? Well, since I started this project with no real hopes of actually LAUNCHING the game on XNA, much less making a lot of money with it…it’s not going to effect it at all with any luck. I’m far enough along that launching it shouldn’t be a problem, and even with dwindling sales figures I would hope to at least make my $99 investment for the creators club…oh…excuse me…Windows App Dev subscription cost back. With any luck…it will make enough for me to purchase a Unity license and take my C# knowledge there.
It’s just disappointing that it appears the future of such a great program, or at least concept, may be fading away.
